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Sewing Machine

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This small sewing machine, which has no identifying marks, may have been made in Brattleboro, Vermont by one of the two manufacturers operating there in the period from 1858-1865: Thomas H. White and Samuel Barker made a machine known as the "Brattleboro" from around 1858 to 1861, and Nettleton & Raymond made the "Common Sense" brand machine in around 1857. Collectively, all of these machines are known as "New England" style machines. It is possible, too, that it may have been made by one of several Massachusetts-based sewing machine companies. In 1862, White left Vermont for Orange, Massachusetts, where he joined with William Grout for a year as Grout & White, but Grout broke with him and moved to Winchendon, where he made machines for another year. Three other Orange, Massachusetts, based companies made these New England-style machines: Clark & Barker (1862-65), Clark (1865-67), and A.F. Johnson (1867). Finally, there were two Winchendon, Massachusetts-based companies making New England machines, William Grout (1863) and J.G. Folsom (1865). There is no record that these sewing machines were produced after 1867.

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